Mango Grove Aiming For December Opening -- Including An Open Kitchen To Watch Dosa Making

Mango Grove and Mirchi Wok are re-opening off Dobbin Road in Columbia, and the owner says that they're aiming to fire up the Indian food by Christmas.

I stopped by the shopping center because La Casa De Sweets tweeted about a menu on the door of the former Mongolian Grill.  Rohit mistook me for someone coming to work on the space, and he came out to talk to me.  My cardinal rule is that I'm not a reporter, but I had to ask Rohit when I was going to get to eat a Mango Grove dosa again.  The giant crepes filled with vegetables make this one of my favorite kitchens in Howard County.

The new Mango Grove will be about the size of the combined restaurants from their old location, which was bulldozed to make way for a drive-through Starbucks.  They're building out two kitchens -- one vegetarian for the Mango Grove menu heavy on southern Indian items and one meat for Mirchi Wok's Indo-Chinese selections.

The veg section will include an open kitchen right at the entrance.  It's the space where Mongolian's chefs cooked the food, and it will let you watch the dosas as they crisp up.

Mango Grove & Mirchi Wok (aiming to open December 2011)
8865 Stanford Boulevard
Columbia, MD

NEAR: This is the shopping center that faces Dobbin Road south of Rte 175.  You enter by turning from Dobbin onto Standard Boulevard.  This has Pub Dog, Hanamura, Riverside Coffee and Noodles Corner.

Mango Grove and Mirchi Wok Reopening in Columbia -- No Details, But Aiming For Winter

Mango Grove announced that it will reopen its vegetarian southern kitchen -- along with its sister restaurant Mirchi Wok -- in Columbia probably over the winter.

The new location will be 8865 Stanford Boulevard, which is the shopping center with Lakeside Coffee, Pub Dog, and Noodles Corner.  The center actually faces on Dobbin Road a few blocks away from the old Mango Grove.  Anyone know if they're taking the space that Frisco Grill vacated?

The announcement came on Mango Grove's Facebook page.  Richard Gorelick tweeted yesterday.  In a comment on the main announcement, the Mango Grove folks said that they're waiting for a contractor, but estimating for 10-12 weeks from now.  That would be January.

The old Mango Grove building has been demolished.  It will be replaced by a new building that appears to be slated to include a drive through Starbucks.

Cold Drinks: Mango Lassi at Mirchi Wok

A mango lassi is a guilt-free milkshake, and it's a way to cool off while filling up.

This is a fruit and yogurt, whipped into a shake and then cooled down with ice.  The lassi is an Indian restaurant standard, and I can vouch for them at House of India, Akbar, Mango Grove and Mirchi Wok.

At the dinner table, the mango or the rose-flavored "sweet" lassi is a must-have for Mrs. HowChow.  But I carried one out last month from Mirchi Wok as a lunchtime treat.  I think all the local Indian joints will let you carry them out.

A lassi is thick.  It's not the icy refreshment of water, but it's cool and substantial considering that you're sucking down yogurt.  It's half of a meal, so it's worth the $4.

(Update: Mirchi Wok and Mango Grove relocated under the Mango Grove name to a spot off Dobbin Road.  Click here for all the Mango Grove posts.)

This is Cold Drink Week.  You want something cool, but you want something better than another soda.  The Cold Drink Week posts offer house-made refreshment -- places that make their own drinks and let your carry them out.

Samosa Week: India And Pak Make A Great Fried Pastry, But Can They Out-Appetize The World?

I don't think that samosas were my first Indian food, but they have certainly become a gateway drug for many people who explore the cuisines of the subcontinent.

And why not?  The appeal is international -- grab a handful of filling, wrap it in dough, drop it in hot oil to fry to a crisp.  Variations run from empanadas to sambusas to the knish.

But I think it's fair to start with the samosa.  You'd do fine at any of the Howard County Indian restaurants or even at the cashier at Food Cravings, but I'll start today with the vegetarian ones at Mango Grove / Mirchi Wok, the paired restaurants in Columbia off Dobbin Road.  (The Howard County planning board approved plans to knock down the building.  Anyone know what is happening to them?)

Two in a $5 order, they come out hot from the oil.  That's a key.  Samosas have a thick pastry shell that often bubbles and browns.  It's thicker than an egg roll, thinner than a calzone.  The best ones are fried and served fresh so that they don't soak in the grease and congeal.

Indian Restaurants in Howard County

Columbia offers more variety for Indian food lovers than for pretty much any other kind of cuisine.

Mango Grove and House of India are my top two, but the truth is that there are a half-dozen good options for people who like Indian food.

For the traditionalists, you can start with the northern Indian or Pakistani cuisine. These are the naan, the curries and the tandoori chicken offered by the majority of Indian restaurants. House of India in Columbia is my current favorite because it delivers both the basics and unusual dishes like whole fish and a bhel puri appetizer. But both Akbar and Bombay Peacock have their backers, including Mrs. HowChow who loves the kheer (rice pudding) at Akbar. (Update: In 2009, Royal Taj opened on McGaw Road in Columbia (briefly as "India Delight" until it chaged its name), and it serves a terrific lunch buffet -- along with a white tablecloth menu for dinner.)

For southern Indian food, you must try the vegetarian food at Mango Grove in Columbia. The broad menu has the standard vegetarian curries like baigan bartha and palak paneer. But Mango Grove offers the masala dosa of southern India, along with a dozen other of the crepe-like dosas and the rice and lentil pancakes called oothappam. This kitchen also does spectacular specials. Never pass up the jack fruit if it is on the menu. An unripened fruit cooked down to a tender texture and the spicy flavor that can only come from talented chefs.

Next door to Mango Grove is the fusion alternative -- Mirchi Wok. Chinese food has travelled to India and come out new on the other side. Mirchi Wok serves up the standard meat dishes unavailable at the vegetarian restaurant. It also serves up fusion dishes like a rice bowl cooked with chicken and spice. It was almost a jambalaya, almost a biryani. Really something different and a way to excite anyone who has been bored by too many meals of tandoori chicken.

All of these restaurants serve takeout. Except for Bombay Peacock in its commercial development, they're all the classic Howard County shopping center restaurants -- casual, friendly, but not dressy. The most-dramatic is House of India, which dresses up its space on Snowden River to the point that I was shocked to walk inside. Your guests will think they were in a city spot if you just blindfold them and drive them there in the trunk of your car.

For the post about the best restaurants in Howard County, click here.

For all posts about Indian food, click here. For Indian groceries, check out the full list of ethnic groceries or focus on Desi Market in Columbia or Apna Bazar in Laurel.

This is part of the "What I Learned" series of posts. They're organized in rings. See below to continue on the ring about different cuisines. Or click to switch to the posts about shopping in Howard County or posts about areas and ideas.

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Akbar Restaurant
9400 Snowden River Parkway
Columbia, MD 21045
410-381-3600

NEAR: This is on Snowden River Parkway south of the Home Depot. That is between Rte 175 and Rte 32. It's on the west side, so you need to be southbound to enter the shopping center.

Bombay Peacock Grill
10005 Old Columbia Road
Columbia, MD 21046
410-381-7111

NEAR: This is just south of Rte 32 off Eden Brook Drive. It's actually very easy to reach, although it is tucked into a commercial development without much chance to see it from the road.

House of India
9350 Snowden River Parkway
Columbia, MD 21045
410-381-3844

NEAR: This is on Snowden between the Home Depot and Broken Land Parkway. It's one shopping center closer to the Home Depot than Akbar. If you are coming from Broken Land, you reach both of those centers by passing them on your left and then U-turning on Snowden.

Mango Grove & Mirchi Wok
6365B Dobbin Center
Columbia, MD 21045
410-884-3426
www.themangogrove.com

Near: On Dobbins Road just south of Rte 175. It is in a outbuilding of the Wal-Mart shopping center next to the McDonalds and the Chik-Fil-a.

Mango Grove and Mirchi Wok

Mango Grove and Mirchi Wok are the ultimate restaurant duplex. Two restaurants in a single building, offering everything in pairs --

• vegetarian southern Indian food at Mango Grove with northern Indian food at Mirchi Wok highlighted by chicken, lamb and fish
• traditional dosas, oothappam and curries with Chinese-Indian fusions
• sophisticated, sometimes-exotic flavors with friendly, casual staff that makes it feel like home

Mango Grove and Mirchi Wok are each among my favorite restaurants. The naan is perfect. The people are nice. Each menu is broad, and, together, the two restaurants offer variation that you could spend months exploring. These are simply-decorated, shopping center restaurants. But they're each a spicy date spot or a reasonably-priced place to become a regular.

Start with a mango lassi. Mrs. HowChow does. We normally start with one of these sweet yogurt drinks and an order of the vegetable samosas. The perfect fried food. Crisp on the outside. Warm, flavorful, but not greasy on the inside. Cut them open and dip with the mint and date sauces that come on the side.

Then, try anything. More than in any other HoCo restaurants, I have ordered all across these menus and never been disappointed.

To start, go to Mango Grove and try a masala dosa and a curry -- maybe baigan bartha if you like eggplant or palak paneer if you like spinach and a firm, mild cheese. The dosa will be an enormous thin crepe wrapped around a potato and onion filling. The curry will be delicious, simmered vegetables, perfect to scoop up with pieces of bread. Naan is our favorite, although the paratha and chappati are also good. (Poori is so fried that I prefer naan.)

Watch for the specials and tell the waiters about your preferences and your experience with Indian food. One night, we ate a jack fruit curry. Firm pieces of fruit that had a meat-like consistency, but a tender feel and the spicy flavor that makes Indian food so exceptional. More like perfect potatoes than the sweet, ripe jack fruit that you can buy in a can.

When you try Mirchi Wok, you can cross the sub-continent for the tandoori chicken of northern India and the Chinese-Indian fusion foods of the big cities. Chicken korma had a scrumtuous sauce -- again to be scooped up by naan. The fun standout was a rice dish whose name I can't remember. It was rice and chicken cooked together with spices so that it came out moist and full of flavor. Almost a jambalaya or a biryani. Note that it was dark meat, which I love but which doesn't excite everyone.

There is a lunch buffet, which was good one day when I had to wait for my car to be served across Dobbin Road. Take-out works well, although I have read complaints elsewhere about the time that it takes. I got dinner once in 25 minutes -- exactly when promised -- even though Mango Grove was filled by a wedding party. It seemed a reasonable wait, and my only regret was that I hadn't ordered an extra naan that I could eat in the car on the way home.

If you like Indian food, check out my post about Indian restaurants across the county or my profiles of the markets -- Desi Bazaar and Apna Bazar.

Mango Grove

Mirchi Wok

6365B Dobbin Center

Columbia, MD 21045

410-884-3426

www.themangogrove.com

Near: On Dobbins Road just south of Rte 175. It is in a outbuilding of the Wal-Mart shopping center next to the McDonalds and the Chik-Fil-a.